you don't have to jump on him and demand that he defends his socialist stance merely because he expressed it

Demand? I can't demand anything. This is an internet forum, all eli_sennesh needs to do is just ignore my comment. That seems easy enough.

solely for calling out people on leftist ideas

It's not like it is something to be ashamed of, is it? If he says he is a "full-throated socialist" I get curious what does that mean. The last place that said it implemented a "fully-developed socialism" was USSR, but I don't think that's what eli_sennesh means.